Former Coen policeman Jock McDonald is back in his old patch where he was among the last to patrol by horseback

It's not every day a former police inspector admits he was a 'tail-end Charlie' but that's exactly what Jock McDonald was when he set out on horseback patrols as a young constable in the Coen policing district, which extended some 32,000 square kilometres, flanked by far more experienced indigenous horsemen and trackers. Mr McDonald says they were an invaluable asset to policing in Cape York Peninsula and fondly recalls, on the Queensland Country Hour, the many positive interactions between police and the predominantly Aboriginal community of Coen.